The present invention relates to data communication between separated devices and, more particularly, to a novel pipelined data communications channel structure for facilitating high-throughput bidirectional and interruptible data transmission between a pair of spaced-apart data devices.
It is well known to communicate data between different devices in a system; at any one instant in a single data communication channel, there is generally a single source device transmitting data from its output, although there may be more than one recipient device receiving that data at its input. High-speed data transfers may be enhanced by hardwired connection of the input/output (I/O) ports of a pair of devices together via a dedicated communications channel. It is our desire to provide such a data communications channel as a high-data-throughput bidirectional channel with sufficient robustness so as to allow not only relatively long distance communications between the associated pair of devices, but also facilitate interruption, by either device, of the data flow without loss of data, regardless of which device originated that flow.